Hyun Bin's Agency To Take Legal Action Against Publishing Photo Book Without Permission

Hyun Bin’s agency stated that they will be taking legal action against a photo book of the actor that is set to be published in Japan without permission.

On August 18, a Japanese media outlet reported that a book of Hyun Bin’s photos that were taken during his time in the Marine Corps would be republished on September 7. The republication is inspired by the popularity of Hyun Bin’s drama “Crash Landing on You,” in which he played a North Korean soldier.

The book in question had previously been published in South Korea as an electronic book in 2012. It was made available in an offline version in Japan in 2014 after a contract with a Japanese publisher. Hyun Bin’s agency was excluded from this contract. The photos in the book had been taken by the Marines for public use but ended up being for sale. As public servants, military personnel do not own portrait rights to their pictures.

Later on August 18, Hyun Bin’s agency, VAST Entertainment, said that they would be taking legal action against a Korean publishing company. A source from the agency stated, “Just like in 2014, we didn’t hear anything about republication in Japan. We saw that it was available for pre-order on Amazon Japan and contacted the current publisher. The publisher was flustered and said that they thought that the Korean agency had already given permission.”

The source continued, “In 2014, we decided that it was the Marine Corps’ affair and didn’t take legal action. This time it’s different. For the past 10 years, the photos that were taken for public use have continued to be used without prior consent. It is an issue that private companies have taken an interest in this. We recently had discussions with a law firm and will be taking legal action.”

A source from Planet Media, the domestic publisher that made the deal for reissue with the Japanese publisher, stated, “We are simply reissuing the content that was published five years ago without any new material. It’s about the Marine Hyun Bin, not the actor Hyun Bin, and was published under the agreement between the publisher and the Marines, so Hyun Bin’s previous and current agencies have nothing to do with it.”

A source from the Marine Corps stated, “We first learned about the republication in Japan through news articles. The publisher did not make an agreement with the Marine Corps on this.” When asked if the Marines had plans to make an agreement in future, the source stated, “We need to investigate this more closely.”

Hyun Bin is currently filming the movie “Bargaining” (working title), based on the 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan.

Watch his film “The Swindlers”:

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